Evidence of Northeastern Atlantic Ocean Acidification Recorded by Boron Isotopes on Deep-sea Coral Madrepora oculata

Ocean acidification is caused by the rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere since the industrial era. Seawater pH has already decreased 0.1 units in surface waters and will continue to drop as atmospheric CO2 levels increase. Assessing the pH variability during the last decades is essential as survival of calcifying organisms strongly depends on seawater pH. Several studies have shown the potential of boron isotopic composition in tropical corals for reconstructing for sea-surface paleo-pH at low latitudes. For highest latitudes and deeper waters (50-4500 m), cold-water corals are interesting and unique as natural archives not only because they live between 4°C and 12°C under strong currents, recording the parameters of sub-surface or intermediate currents, but also because they build their aragonite skeleton without the photosynthesis process. In order to assess if the seawater acidification has already reached the North Atlantic Ocean at high latitudes, pH reconstruction has been performed on a deep-sea coral Madrepora oculata sample from Rost Reef (67°N, 9°E, 350 m of depth). Boron isotopes have been measured on the Neptune Multi-Collector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (MCICP-MS) with direct injection system (d-DIHEN). External reproducibility obtained here for seawater reference NASS-2 was 0.1%. The model age estimates its life-span to 40±3 years (2σ) and the Li/Mg ratio estimates a relative constant seawater temperature during the whole period of growth of the coral (7.0±0.5°C). A drop tendency is observed on boron isotopes, reflecting a potential decrease of seawater pH of approximately 0.06±0.02 pH units during the last 40 years, depending on the isotopic fractionation coefficient employed for calculations. Similarly, seawater acidification rate is 0.0012±0.00015 pH units per year. pH and temperature reconstructions revealed an influence of thermohaline circulation and surface winds on the skeleton geochemistry. Supplementary measurements of carbon and oxygen isotopes, as well as the comparison of boron variability with other physiological parameters such as coral density, will allow us to confirm the drop on seawater pH on the last decades for the northeastern intermediate Atlantic waters.